


Christmas tree(s)

by Dreamers_den



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Tree, Fun, Gen, surprise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-09 01:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8869609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamers_den/pseuds/Dreamers_den
Summary: Ed and Al return from a mission day before the Christmas. They realize that they miss a tree and must do everything possible to save the tradition. Armstrong and Mustang´s team appear later to help.





	

“Damn that mission,” Ed groaned, throwing himself into an armchair. Al sat down on the floor in the middle of their living room and a pile of sand fell out of his armour. 

“I swear that Colonel Mustang enjoys sending us to desert villages,” Ed kept complaining. “As if you could find there anything else than few sand-worms in your soup! Definitely not a place for the Philosopher´s stone.”

While Ed was talking, Al put his helm off and tried to shake rest of the sand out of it. His expression was as annoyed as his armour allowed.

“And we had to go there right before the Christmas!” he whined. “I had no time to buy presents for everyone.”

Ed shrugged. “We can still make something using the alchemy,” he suggested. “Everyone says that handmade gifts are super caring.”

“I´m not sure that includes alchemy-made gifts,” Al said hesitantly. He put his helm back on and looked around the flat which they got when Ed became the State Alchemist.

“Sure it does.” Ed put his feet on the coffee table and sighed. “Don´t fuss over it now, Christmas is but tomorrow. I really want to have some sleep after the night in train.”

“All right.” Al got up from the floor and flexed his metal joints. “I´ll bring the box with Christmas decorations in the meantime, so we would have everything prepared for tomor- oh, NO!” he yelled suddenly so loud that Ed almost fell off his armchair.

“What?!” Ed exclaimed, jumping up and clapping his hands, ready to transmute the armchair into a cannon against the intruders. 

“No, no, no!” Al covered his face with palms in despair. “We don´t have a Christmas tree!”

“Oh.” Ed fell back into the armchair. “That can wait till tomorrow, right?”

“No! All shops will be closed tomorrow and we won´t get the tree anywhere,” Al explained in panicked voice. “And Christmas without a tree would be so sad!” He sniffed and then broke into tears. “We can´t have Christmas without a tree!”

“Alphonse!” Ed had to climb the armchair to escape the sudden flood of tears. “Where is that water even coming from?” he groaned, when the armchair started to float on the river of Al´s tears. “Okay! We won ´t have Christmas without a tree! Just stop crying already!”

“Really?” Al immediately stopped and hugged his brother so hard that he almost broke Ed´s ribs. “Promise, big bro?”

“Oww- of course,” Ed moaned. He struggled out of Al´s embrace and moved to the door. “Come on, Al. We´ll get us a tree!”

It appeared that getting a Christmas tree on the last day before Christmas would be as difficult as doing Colonel Mustang´s tasks. Maybe even more difficult, because the brothers browsed whole town before the lunch and they found exactly zero Christmas trees for sale. 

Owner of one of the stands at the Christmas market told them that he already sold all his trees, but that they could go to the forest and buy permission for cutting a tree directly from the forest managers.

“Let´s do that,” Ed declared when seeing tears forming on Al´s helm. “Don´t worry, we still have tons of time.”

“But we still need to decorate our flat and prepare the presents.”

Ed confidently shrugged. “No problem. How hard it can be to cut your own tree, right? We´ll be done in no time and then you can decorate whatever you want.”

“Hurray!” Al capped his hands and headed towards the forest. Yawning, Ed followed him with his hands in the pockets. He wasn´t worried that Al would get lost, after all, you can´t lose sight of a such large armour easily. 

Ed followed the hopping armour until they reached the gamekeepers cottage, where Al was already explaining their situation to a bearded gamekeeper.

“Ed! Come on!” he called for brother. “He said that we can have any tree as long as we pay the fee, but we must cut and carry it on our own, because he´s too busy.”

“Never mind. We´ll manage,” Ed retorted. He watched Al jumping up and down in joy while he paid the fee. Yawning again, Ed headed towards the trees, Al quickly getting ahead of him. Al´s enthusiasm was getting under Ed´s skin too. After all, cutting your own Christmas tree could be pretty cool, he thought.

In the meantime, Al was already running from tree to tree. “What about this one?” he asked cheerfully, pointing to a pine tree. “Or this?” he exclaimed, hugging spruce. “Or that one? This tree looks pretty too. No, that one is better.”

“You know that we just need one tree, right?” Ed laughed out.

“Yes, but all of them are so great. I can´t choose!”

“I like this one,” Ed suggested, looking at a thick pine. “It has cool Christmas smell.”

“It´s too big,” Al judged, eyeing the tree. “We need something smaller.”

“You think?” Ed took a step back and measured the pine with eyes. “Yeah, it´s probably too tall for our flat.”

Al checked the tree too. “Right. Plus it must be small enough for me to carry it. You know, you´re too short to carry a-“

“I´m WHAT?!” Ed roared, scaring few birds out of the close bush. “I´m not short!”

“I-I didn´t mean it like that,” Al said hastily, but it was too late.

“I´m not short at all! My height is perfectly normal for my age! You´re the weirdly large in that armour. I can carry as many trees as you, just wait!” Ed turned on his heel and rushed into the forest. “This year, we´re going to have a _huge_ tree. I´ll show you who´s short!”

Sighing, Al hung his head down. He could easily imagine Ed trying to pull a tree tall as house into their living room. “Wait!” he called. “Our ceiling is only about 2 meters tall!” But Ed wasn´t listening anymore, wading through the snow deeper into the forest where the taller trees grew. Al shook his head and ran after his brother before Ed could actually cut a house-tall tree.

“What about this one?” Ed asked, standing in front of a fir three times as tall as himself.

“But the ceiling really has only about 2 meters,” Al groaned. “What about this one? I really like this one,” he added quickly, dragging Ed towards smaller pine tree. “It´s cool, isn´t it?”

“It´s small,” Ed snapped. “We´ll find a better one.”

“Oh.” Al facepalmed in defeat and followed his brother through the forest. He was thinking about a way to talk Ed out of cutting a tree two floors tall, when he suddenly heard a cracking sound not far in front of them.

“Watch ouuuut!”

“Aaaa!” Al screamed when a huge tree almost crushed him. Ed had to dive into a snowdrift to dodge and he growled in anger.

“What was that meant to be?!” Suddenly, a large shadow fell over him. Ed slowly turned his head only to see a silhouette of a massive man with an axe. “Aaaaaaaaaaaa!”

“It´s okay, it´s okay. That´s just me,” Major Armstrong said quickly. “I just slashed a tree for local hospital, because helping others during Christmas is an old tradition of Armstrong family!”

“Of course it is,” Ed groaned and tried to dig himself out of the snowdrift. Major Armstrong grabbed his collar, pulling him out effortlessly.

“Forgive me if I scared you, Elric brothers,” the kind giant apologized. “I didn´t know that anyone was here.”

Ed started dusting the show off his red coat while Al moved closer to the fallen tree. He whistled, seeing the spruce which Major cat and decided not to comment its size in from of Ed.

“We came to get a tree too,” he said instead. “We returned from mission just this morning and we couldn´t get s tree in town because all were already sold.”

“But that is so sad!” Major clenched his fists and dramatically looked into the distance. “To have no Christmas tree, that would be a tragedy!” 

“That´ okay,” Ed soothed him quickly. “We came to cut one of these-“

“I´ll help you!” Major Armstrong roared. He squeezed Ed´s collar and almost lifted the boy off the ground. “I can´t let you and your brother to have a Christmas without Christmas tree!”

“Okay,” Ed agreed quickly, because the collar was starting to strange him. Major Armstrong let go of him so he could tear off his coat and shirt and reveal his Herculean muscles.

“Don´t worry, Edward Elric,” he stated, surrounded by the glow of his determination. “Cutting of Christmas trees is an old tradition of Armstrong family! We´ll find you a beautiful tree!”

“All right…”

Brothers exchanged glances, knowing that there was no refusing Major Armstrong once he decided to help you. They followed him through the forest to trees smaller than the one which he slashed for the hospital. Major apparently knew the place well, because he leaded them to a group of lovely pines, which would fit into Elrics´ flat.

“What do you think?” he asked proudly, leaning on his axe. “Which one do you like?”

“This one!” Al exclaimed, cheerfully pointing to one of the trees. Next to him, Edward nodded.

“That one is good.”

“All right.” Major stopped leaning and he spat into his palms instead. “Take a step back, please.” He raised his axe above his head and brought it down with a battle cry. The trunk broke under a single hit and the tree fell on the ground.

Al gasped in awe: “Wow…”

“Don´t mention it. And now, we´ll take the trees back to town.”

“Thank you, Major, but we can take our tree on our own,” Ed said, raising his hands up defensively. However, Major only angrily frowned at him.

“I can´t allow that. I wouldn´t be able to call myself Armstrong if I didn´t help my friends in the time on need.”

“We´re not in need,” Al tried, but Major already took the culturist stance.

“Carrying the trees is an old tradition of Armstrong family! Let´s go!” He threw Elric´s tree over his shoulder and grabbed the other one in his hand. Flexing the muscles until his moustache bristled, he huffed and headed back to the town.

“All right,” Ed shrugged and he followed Major together with Al.

Major Armstrong insisted on delivering the tree for the hospital first, so they could start decorating it, and that he would personally take the other tree to Elric´s flat afterwards. Ed and Al tried to persuade him that they could handle it, but in vain. Major didn´t let go of the tree until it was placed on its respected spot in brothers´ living room.

“And it´s done,” Ed sighed and collapsed on the couch. “Let´s decorate it tomorrow, I really want to sleep now.”

“You can´t be serious, Edward,” Major Armstrong exclaimed. “You can´t postpone the decorating for tomorrow! I´ll help you. After all, the art of decorating the Christmas trees is passed down the Armstrong line for generations!”

“Oh, but you don´t have to,” Al said hastily.

“I do!” Major insisted. “So, where are your decorations?”

“Bring them to him,” Ed decided, sounding resigned. “He won´t leave anyway.”

“Ok!” 

Al rushed to bring the stuff and Major eagerly rubbed his hands. Suddenly, the doorbell rang, startling Ed from dozing on the couch.

“Oh, come on!” he groaned, dragging himself up. “Who has nothing else to do at the time like this?” he muttered under his breathe while going to the door. The bell rang again. “Coming, coming!” Ed jerked the door open only to find himself nose deep in the tree needles. “What?”

“Surprise!” a cacophony of voices called from the hall. The Christmas tree in front of Ed leant to side and the young alchemist could see Colonel Mustang smirking behind it. 

“We brought you a tree, Fullmetal. You can thank us later.”

Before Ed could say anything, the tree moved again and pushed itself into the flat, quickly followed by Mustang, Hawkeye, Havoc, Farman and Fuery. Mustang´s team marched into the living room, setting the tree down.

“We thought that you wouldn´t have time to get a Christmas tree after the last mission,” Hawkeye explained. “So we decided to get you one.”

“But… we already have one.”

“That´s true,” Major Armstrong added. “I slashed it for Elric brother personally, and I brought it here.”

“Stop boasting,” Colonel Mustang chilled him down. “We thought about it beforehand and we reserved a tree for Elric right after they went for mission and it was clear that they would be barely back for Christmas.”

“I found the decorations!” called Al who just returned back to the living room with his arms full of the boxes. Only then he noticed another tree and soldiers around it. “What´s going on?”

“It seems that we´ll have two trees this Christmas,” Ed retorted, smirking.

“Cool! And we can decorate them together.” 

“Hey!” Ed looked reluctant, but everyone else loved Al´s idea. Even Hawkeye seemed thrilled by it. “But we don´t have enough stuff for two trees,” Ed tried.

“You´re underestimating our creativity,” Colonel Mustang said with a devilish smile. “We´ll manage to decorate two Christmas trees without any problems!”

“Exactly!” Major exclaimed, throwing his shirt off. Whole room was enlightened by the glow of his muscles. “We can do even impossible together!”

“I doubt that decorating trees is that difficult,” Al said, but Major ignored him. Ed rubbed his eyes which began to sting from all that sparking. 

“Ok. Let´s do it.”

Together, they put each tree into one of the corners of the living room. Before the brothers knew, their flat was full of the soldiers in civil clothes, who were putting on the tree everything which was within their reach. While Al decorated Major´s tree mostly with the balls which they already had, the others used whatever appealed their taste and ingenuity. 

“Not there, Lieutenant,” Mustang scolded Hawkeye. “You can´t put a blue bow next to another blue bow. Move it more to left.”

“Whatever.”

“Where did you even find those bows?” Ed wondered, being completely sure that he never saw anything like that in his flat before.

“I made them of the curtains,” Hawkeye boasted. Ed turned to the window abruptly, only to find the usual dark curtains missing from their hangers.

“We could also use a few red bows, right?” Havoc asked behind Ed´s back. “May I borrow your coat for a sec?”

“You definitely may not!” To save his coat, Ed ran to the other tree which was being decorated by Al, Major and Fuery. “You won´t try to cut my coat into bows, right?” he asked, just to make sure.

“No,” Fuery retorted cheerfully. “But it´s a good idea.”

“Forget about it,” Ed snapped, taking the ball from the box.

“Today wasn´t that bad in the end, right?” asked Al, who was sitting on the floor next to tree, happily hanging the balls on.

“Yeah,” Ed smiled. “You were worried that we´d have no tree and now we got two!” He looked over his shoulder at the other tree, where Colonel was just hanging slices of apples instantly dried with his flame alchemy. Havoc was lying under the tree, threading the spare matrices from Winry on the lower branches. Laughing, Ed turned back to Al. “You´re right, it´s not that bad after all.”

**Author's Note:**

> Naturally, I don´t own Fullmetal alchemist. Also naturally, I love it.:) 
> 
> Btw, English isn´t my native language, so if you see mistakes, feel free to complai.


End file.
